The present invention relates to a method for ripening fruit, such as bananas, in which a fluid is cooled and guided along the fruit by circulation means conveying said fluid through a load of fruit placed on a pallet.
Such a method is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,685. In the case of this method two rows of pallets, each stacked two loaded pallets high, are placed parallel to each other in a chamber. Spaces are produced between the individual stacked rows and between the stacked rows and the longitudinal side walls of the chambers. The stacked rows are placed with one end against a false rear wall of the chamber, and a space is left between the false rear wall of the chamber and the outside rear wall of the chamber. The top side of the stacks is sealed off by an element which also seals off the space between the stacks, and the other end of the stacks is sealed off in an identical way. Air is sucked off out of the space between the stacks through holes in the false rear wall which open out into the space between the stacks, and said air is cooled and blown out above the stacks. The air flows into the spaces between the stacks and the longitudinal side walls of the chamber, and then in the horizontal direction along the fruit packed in boxes and loaded onto pallets to the space between the stacks.
This known device has the great disadvantage that air flows very unevenly through the boxes full of fruit on the pallets. The flow of air through the boxes is much better close to the Fear wall than at the other end of the rows. This results in uneven ripening of the fruit. Furthermore, owing to the fact that the flow decreases as the distance from the rear wall increases, it is not possible in practice to make the rows of pallets of unlimited length.